Btw, I saw that while looking for eco-friendly bubbles. Maybe made out of recycled plastic or something. So far, no luck. Has anyone seen something like that? (obv. I can make the bubble liquid myself, but I need something to blow them...)

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

I have a metal bubble wand, so maybe you could just make your own out of a coat hangar or other wire?

Right now Walter's favorite toys are my spatulas and ladles and colanders. I have several serving spoons in the back seat of my car that he plays with while we're driving. Also awesome: spice jars.

This morning I just bought some crayons and sidewalk chalk, and a cheap plastic beach bucket and shovel that are surely full of endocrin disrupting chemicals. It was hard not to buy all the cool wooden toys, but he already has so many. Later this week we are going to hit up a kids' consignment shop and see what kinds of toddler toys we can find.

Later this week we are going to hit up a kids' consignment shop and see what kinds of toddler toys we can find.

That's what we did this weekend. Kai wasn't walking last year, so he doesn't have any outside toys. This weekend was his first time playing in the backyard so I realized he could use something to play with out there. We got him a little tikes dump truck from the consignment shop, and a golf set he absolutely loves! It is very similar to this one:

It's great at the consgnment shop because they have all the toys out on the floor, so while I looked for clothes my husband just played with him and we bought what he really liked. Plus since it is used I don't feel too bad about it being plastic. He played with the golf set almost the whole time I was there. Since we've gotten home he's been dragging the wheeled "bag" around everywhere. Too cute!

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

Land of Nod used to sell this cute wooden grill that I thought was the coolest:

Ooh and Melissa & Doug has a lemonade stand / store playset. It makes me think about how much fun it would be to help Lady V set up a lemonade stand or even garden w/ her and have a little farmer's market in the yard ;)

I am having a BLAST building train tracks for the boy, but that's another thread.

One thing he's loved has been these things:

I like little music toys (for myself, heh) but I can hand him that there and he'll sit and play with it for as long as I let him. You do have to have a good tolerance for noise though...

That is so cool that the emperor plays with his korg! We downloaded several synth and drum machine apps for kai, but he is only mildly interested. I guess there goes my dream of him becoming a great techno musician haha! (although with as many unemployed great techno musicians I know, that's probably a good thing)

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

It's amazing how quickly their tastes change! Two and a half months later, Walter is really into babies. I actually just ordered him a Melissa and Doug baby because a girl at the playground had one and he would NOT STOP. "Babeee? Babeee! Babeee!!!!!" She let him carry it around and kiss it and pet it, he was so freaking cute. I suspect I may get some shiitake from my family for letting him play with a doll, but they can shove it. He also loves manly manly cars--grandpa in California let him play with hot wheels, and oh boy, are we going to have to get some of those. We have a few larger sprig cars that he's never really cared about but he has hot wheels LUST.

I LOVE those tree blocks. My brother had some and they were so much fun to build with.

My mom has bought my daughter several of the Playmobil 123 sets and Molly just *loves* those, especially the people. She calls them all "man". Even the women. She likes to sleep with the "man". And the giraffe.

It's amazing how quickly their tastes change! Two and a half months later, Walter is really into babies. I actually just ordered him a Melissa and Doug baby because a girl at the playground had one and he would NOT STOP. "Babeee? Babeee! Babeee!!!!!" She let him carry it around and kiss it and pet it, he was so freaking cute. I suspect I may get some shiitake from my family for letting him play with a doll, but they can shove it. He also loves manly manly cars--grandpa in California let him play with hot wheels, and oh boy, are we going to have to get some of those. We have a few larger sprig cars that he's never really cared about but he has hot wheels LUST.

Kai has one baby doll and he loves to kiss it. Every so often he just starts saying baby! baby!, grabs it out of his toybox and kisses it a bunch of times. I tried to get him to pretend play with it, rocking it in my arms and saying, 'put baby to sleep in your rocking chair', but he wasn't into it. So then I started making baby crying sounds and he didn't like that at all! haha I was like, 'oh, so now you know how we feel!' ha.

Overall he is definitely getting more into his stuffed animals now. He got tons as gifts but never really liked them. But now he likes to hug his build-a-bear penguin, and cracks up when I make a goat run towards him and butt into him. He also really likes a Tinky-winky teletubbie I had from a long time ago. Calls that 'baby' too, and kisses it.

I haven't gotten any new toys lately because he is still doing new things with all he got for his 1st bday and xmas. He's still figuring out his 1st puzzles and the shape sorter. I think the next big toy phase will be 3 years because that's when all the choking hazard warnings are over.

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

It's amazing how quickly their tastes change! Two and a half months later, Walter is really into babies. I actually just ordered him a Melissa and Doug baby because a girl at the playground had one and he would NOT STOP. "Babeee? Babeee! Babeee!!!!!" She let him carry it around and kiss it and pet it, he was so freaking cute. I suspect I may get some shiitake from my family for letting him play with a doll, but they can shove it.

Kai has one baby doll and he loves to kiss it. Every so often he just starts saying baby! baby!, grabs it out of his toybox and kisses it a bunch of times. I tried to get him to pretend play with it, rocking it in my arms and saying, 'put baby to sleep in your rocking chair', but he wasn't into it. So then I started making baby crying sounds and he didn't like that at all! haha I was like, 'oh, so now you know how we feel!' ha.

poopiebaby LOVES his baby doll. He rocks it, breastfeeds it (lifts his shirt and everything!), kisses it, puts it on his shoulder and pats its back, pushes it around in its pushchair... he sometimes insists that I give the baby bites of food while I'm feeding him. It's pretty adorable.

I don't feel like we have any particulary awesome toys (like those grocery/lemonade stands--so cute!). My girls are playing with the basics now: blocks, baby dolls (I hate the plastic ones, but that's mostly what we have and they seem to prefer them to the cloth dollies), and, obviously, all the measuring cups and spatulas they can sneak out of the kitchen.